This Applied Optics feature issue is dedicated to the 12th topical meeting on Optical Interference Coatings held on 16–21 June 2013 in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The conference, taking place in a three-year rotation with conferences in Europe and Asia, is a focal point for global technical interchange in the field of optical interference coatings and provides premier opportunities for people in the field to present their new advances in research and development. Papers presented at the conference cover a broad range of topics, from thin film deposition processes, designs and modeling, materials, and metrologies to a wide array of thin film applications.